


Can't Wish It Away

by verucasalt123



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Caring John Winchester, Comment Fic, Ficlet, Gen, Hospitalization, Nervous Sam Winchester, Pre-Season/Series 01, Sick Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 22:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14819985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verucasalt123/pseuds/verucasalt123
Summary: Dean tries to pretend he’s not sick. It doesn’t last long.(I wrote this about 5 years ago for a comment fic meme and never posted it here)





	Can't Wish It Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [embroiderama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/embroiderama/gifts).



Dean figured it must have been a pretty serious lead his dad was working on the past day or two. John was on the phone almost constantly with Bobby or Pastor Jim, even with Caleb who was starting to get more involved in the hands-on aspect of hunting now that he was eighteen. Hell, Dean had more real-life hunting experience under his belt and he was three years younger than Caleb. He couldn’t really concentrate on that now, though, just like he couldn’t concentrate on anything else except the pain in his belly and almost constant nausea that he just couldn’t shake. 

At first he’d thought it was some kind of stomach bug, but after a day or two passed and the symptoms only got worse, he wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t taken a shit in a couple of days, which might explain why his stomach was hurting. But he hadn’t been able to eat much lately, and not eating could certainly lead to not having to go to the bathroom. It all just seemed like a circle, and he couldn’t figure out what was causing what. 

The pain was so weird, though. Not a diffuse ache all over, more like a sharp spike of pain low in his belly that didn’t go away ever. It was even keeping him up at night. Plus, he was sure he had a fever. Nothing too high, but enough that his skin felt clammy and his eyes were all dried out and itchy. 

He sure as hell hadn’t said anything about it, though. It was obvious that John was preoccupied, and clearly it was something very important with the unending phone calls and comparing notes and furiously looking up or writing down information in his journal, maybe even a lead on the thing that had killed Mom. 

No way he could say anything to Sam, either. The kid overreacted to every damn thing these days, and Sammy would have gone straight to their dad if he thought Dean was sick. So he just did his best; pretended to do homework when he could barely even see the words on the pages, went off to school in the mornings and kept his head down, cooked dinner for him and Sam and tried really hard not to make it obvious that he wasn’t eating much. That was a pretty big red flag right there, even for Dean, and again, if Sam noticed it, there’s no way he would have let it go. 

He’d lifted a bottle of Tylenol from the drugstore two blocks from the school so he didn’t use up everything in their med kit – that would have made it pretty clear that something was wrong. Even if he hadn’t noticed that Dean had suddenly gone quiet and still, John sure as hell would have noticed their first aid supplies running low. 

There were certain priorities, though, in Dean’s point of view, and he wasn’t going to let his weird stomachache distract his father or upset his little brother. The Tylenol seemed to help the feverish feelings a bit, but nothing touched the pain. It was like something was sticking him _hard_ in this one spot below and to the right of his belly button. 

By the third day, he was holding back tears with the effort to walk normally and not double over from how much it hurt. The next day was Saturday and if he had to be around John and Sam all day, there was no way one of them wasn’t going to figure out something was off. Dean didn’t know how much longer he could hide it, either, because he’d never experienced anything like this before and to be honest, he was starting to get a little scared that there was something really bad wrong with him. 

To his great relief, Dean woke up Saturday morning and the pain in his belly had finally eased. He was still nauseated and pretty weak, but the pressure and pain in his stomach were nearly gone. Finally, he thought, whatever the hell this is, it’s starting to go away, I won’t have to bother anyone about it.

John was still so wrapped up in talking to the other hunters nonstop that he hadn’t even made Dean and Sam go out to spar or train that morning. Dean wasn’t much of a believer, but he was tempted to throw some thanks in the direction of Heaven for that little blessing. Sammy, of course, spent his extra time reading books that weren’t for school while Dean just laid in bed and tried to catch up on some much-needed rest.

It all came crashing down, though, when Dean got up to piss a little before lunchtime. He was feeling chilled to the bone and didn’t want to get out from under the covers. Sam and John were both in the kitchen – Sam looking for a snack and John scribbling more notes in his journal. Just a few steps down the hallway and right in front of the entrance to the kitchen, the pain in his stomach came roaring back, sudden and strong enough that he had to grab onto the wall for support and couldn’t stop a few tears from escaping his eyes. Sammy saw him and, of course, freaked out. 

“Dean! Dean, what’s wrong, what happened?” Sam was just loud enough to make their dad look up from his writing and take a hard look at Dean. 

“What is it, son?” he asked gruffly, his voice clearly caught between concern and annoyance. 

“Nothing, really, I…”and that was all he could get out before the room in front of him took a hard turn to the left and his vision blurred. He felt himself heading toward the floor, but passed out before he actually got there.

The next thing Dean knew, he was opening his eyes in a hospital emergency room bed. His father and brother stood aside as the doctor asked him a few questions. Dean described his symptoms and said it had been going on for a couple of days, but that he really thought he was better this morning because the pain was almost completely gone. 

“Just from your description, I’d say your appendix is ruptured, and the blood we took when your dad brought you in is showing me a high white blood cell count, which just backs up that theory. Let’s get you into CT to make sure.”

Dean got through the CT scan while the doctor confirmed that his appendix had, in fact, ruptured. “It’s pretty common for some of the pain to be relieved when the rupture occurs because the organ isn’t putting so much pressure on you anymore. But we’ve got to get you into surgery immediately. The infection could get into your bloodstream if we don’t get everything cleaned out as quickly as possible. If we could have gotten to you while it was still just appendicitis, you’d be in and out of here in a day. But you’ll need IV antibiotics for several days to be sure you don’t develop sepsis. Sorry kid, looks like you’re going to be here a while. I’ll be back to get you as soon as I can get an open operating room for us.”

As the doctor made his way out, Dean started to cry again. He felt so guilty. How the hell were they going to pull off keeping him in a hospital for that long? Fake insurance is lucky to last through an ER visit, but an admission? No way. 

“Dad, I’m so sorry”, he said through his tears. “I should have said something before, I didn’t mean to cause us so much trouble, I never thought it was something that bad…”

John cut him off there, while Sam just sat quietly looking at his brother like he was scared half to death. “Son, don’t you think like that. I know I’ve been preoccupied lately, but I am never too busy to look out for my boys. Hell, I had my appendix out when I was a little younger than you, I remember how much it hurt. I can’t believe you were in that kind of pain and I didn’t even realize. Everything’s gonna be all right, we’ll figure it out. So long as we can get you better, that’s all I care about right now.”

“But what about the hunt? I heard you on all those phone calls and-”

“You hush now, Dean, I mean it. I’m not the only hunter on the planet, and I’m not leaving you, not for anything. I’m just sorry I didn’t notice there was something wrong.”

Sam crept up to Dean’s bedside slowly, tears forming in his own eyes. “You’re gonna be okay now, Dean. You’re so brave, and there’s no way a buncha germs are tougher than you, right?”

“No way, Sammy. Don’t you be scared kiddo, I’ll be good as new before we know it, I promise.”

He still had to go through the post-surgical pain, the side-effects from the antibiotics, the daily needles to test his blood and being cooped up in the pediatric ward of a hospital for nearly a week. But just knowing that his family was there with him made it all a little more bearable.


End file.
